Category Archives: DJI

Updates: Released Video from DJI…. the all new Mavic Air…. Do note that it does not have 4k60fps.

I guess, many around the world could not wait for DJI to announce their latest addition to the family. DJI will be announcing the Mavic Air in a few hour’s time with details of the new drone and also more sample video footages.

At the moment, these are the key features:

3 axis gimbal with 4k60FPS recording

Rear facing and Front facing obstacle avoidance sensor

High Res 360 degree Photos (I might just get this drone for this feature).

21 min maximum flight time

Will this kill off their sale for Spark or Mavic Pro? So now the only advantage of Mavic Pro is longer flight time and may be higher max speed. Will you buy this new Mavic Air?

DJI has yet released another teaser. This time should be for an update on Mavic Pro as it “Unfolds”. Rumours mentioned that there is a chance that it may be a Mavic “Air”, where it is lighter and smaller than the Mavic Pro, but with the same features. Other rumour mentioned that it may be a Mavic Pro II where it features a 1″ camera sensor and a rear obstacle avoidance sensor. Hopefully, they continue to share the same batteries so that I can use my Mavic Pro batteries on the new Mavic Pro.

Whatever it may be, I am very excited to see what DJI is going to offer this time, and which boundaries are being pushed by them. We will know the answer on the 23rd of Jan 2018 at 10am EST.

Had the opportunity to fly in Harbin, China in a -26 to -31 degree environment. I had the gimbal frozen once during flight and have to fly back to free it. It could be due to some moisture(melted snow) that gets into the gimbal and freeze up instantly when I took it out of the bag.

The Mavic Pro handles the cold well (no noticeable reduction in flight time) , but not my hand and phone. My iPhone 7 plus shuts down after about 10min with 100% charge. Have to auto RTH once as I lose FPV connection. My fingers becomes numb and later extreme pain, risking frost bite.

Had the Inspire 2 for a while, and today I have decided to test out just how usable is the active tracking. I have used it to track another smaller drone, the DJI Mavic Pro. Turns out the active tracking was not bad, so I up the game by making it do point of interest at the same time.

The inspire 2 was actually too powerful or something, I realise it tends to chase and get too close then stop then chase again, looks like a yo yo effect. However, I get it to do the POI, this effect is not visible any more. Mavic Pro was a bit challenging to track as it is small, and it easily get lost if the back ground do not provide enough contrast. But overall the Inspire 2 did well, and I can see many potential to use this feature.

Photos taken by Inspire 2Image taken by Mavic ProImage taken by Mavic Pro

DJI introduced the Zenmuse X7 gimbal with DL mount. Current they have created the 16mm, 24mm, 35mm and 50mm prime lenses for this mount. Sounds really exciting, but lacks real world test at this moment. Low light photography has always been a challenge for aerial. With this new introduction, we are going to see a whole new world open up for photographer and film makers, taking their imagination and creativity sky high.

With a price tag of US$2699 excluding lens and each lens averaging a price tag of US$1299 or a complete set with 4 lenses at US$4299, a worthy upgrade from the x5s? Personally, I will hold back the investment for the new mount to mature a little more.

Personally, what I do hope for, is for DJI to build in the Phantom 4 pro camera into the Mavic Pro form factor. That will open up a whole possibilities for indoor aerial video and also for photographers to bring an UAV to very remote areas to capture high quality low light images.

Just 2 days ago, DJI announced the Mavic Pro Platinum and the Phantom 4 Pro Obsidian. The much anticipated additional obstacle avoidance for Mavic Pro Platinum did not happen. DJI only improved the ESC and the propellers of the Mavic Pro. With that the flight time has been increased by additional 3mins and the noise level cut down by 4 decibels.

The new propeller is also compatible with the older Mavic, and the additional 3 mins of flight time doesn’t seem much in real world application. Hence, personally, if you already owned the original Mavic Pro, there is really not much point upgrading. If you have not invested in the Mavic yet, It is really up to you to see if you want to spend the additional US$100 for the slight improvement.

Mavic Pro PlatinumNew Low Noise Propeller for Mavic Pro

As for the P4P Obsidian, it does look good. But I think that’s about it. It is similar to the Inspire 1 black and the original Inspire 1, it is identical except for color. Personally, I feel it may be easier to spot while on flight. But in a hot country, white makes more sense. As it reflects heat a lot better. For those who have not bought the P4P, the Obsidian might be a good choice just for the “cool” factor.

I suspect something else is cooking at DJI. We should see a new generation of ESC and Drones that will have a flight time of about 45min soon.

Recently, DJI released a new firmware update to add/enhance the features of Spark.

Added features are:

1) Gesture mode photos is upgraded from 2 megapixels to 8 megapixels.

2) A new 180 panoramic mode.

3) Starting and stopping video recording in gesture mode.

In my opinion, these are very good features and it made the Spark a lot more appealing now. Personally, I love the 180 panoramic shots. When selected, on the click of the button, Spark takes 21 photos starting from center and for 7 columns. One column in the middle, and 3 more columns on the left and on the right. Each column is made up of 3 photos, slightly tilted up(still avoiding the propellers), straight & level and slightly silted down. During the downloading process, the DJI GO 4 app will automatically stitch all 21 photos together to give you a high res panoramic shots with little distortion when compare to iPhone panoramic shots.

So what is in it for photographers? Spark is small in foot print, it takes half the time to setup as compared to Mavic Pro, and the ability to take the 180 Panoramic shots just gave the spark a slight advantage over Mavic Pro if taking still photos is the main priority. Spark will offer the photographer a new perspective in the kind of shots he can get.

I have always wanted to test out how Good the Active Tracking of the Mavic Pro is in the 3 dimensional space using another drone. Today I had the chance to try out with my buddy on a 550 size hexacopter.

I had some difficulty trying to get the Mavic to recognise the hexacopter as it is rather small if I keep a safe distance. After a few trial and error, I managed to move in close enough to let the Mavic lock on. Tracking is generally smooth, and the obstacle avoidance system ensures the Mavic is kept at a safe distance from the subject. I could observed the Mavic did some emergency braking when the subject made a sudden slow down in speed. However, the Mavic will lose track when the subject makes a change in altitude to disappear from the screen.

In conclusion, I will say the Active Tracking is usable, but not in all situation. Especially, if the subject moves very randomly or moves up and down beyond the vision range.